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Giygas
Giygas (ギーグ Gīgu) is the main antagonist in Mother and EarthBound. Known as both the "Embodiment of Evil" and the "Universal Cosmic Destroyer," Giygas is an evil alien who intends to sentence all of reality to the horror of infinite darkness. With an army of Starmen, Octobots and other deadly war machines, Giygas also uses his immense power to influence certain Earthlings to assist him, such as Pokey Minch and Geldegarde Monotoli. In EarthBound, most of Giygas's operations take place in the city of Fourside. Biography Giygas was raised from infancy by a woman named Maria and her husband George, both of whom were abducted from Earth in 1909. During this time, George studied the aliens' PSI powers without their permission, culminating with his escape back to Earth. Once he matured, Giygas was tasked by his people to ensure that PSI never spread onto Earth. However, Giygas did not want to betray those who raised him, particularly Maria. In the end, he was forced to detach himself from Maria and begin preparations for the invasion of Earth. Sometime before the invasion, Giygas comes across the apple of enlightenment a fruit that shows the future. Giygas learns of his inevitible defeat at the hands of Ness so he attacks Earth twenty years before this would occur in order to disprove the prophecy. In Mother Eighty years later the invasion begins, although Giygas is confronted by the great-grandson of Maria and George, Ninten, and his companions. Before the two can fight, Giygas, still hurt by the loss of Maria, offers Ninten to come with him back to his home planet, signifying that the only thing he really wants in life is companionship. Ninten declines this offer though, and Giygas is forced to attack. Ninten and his friends quickly prove no match for Giygas; they resort to singing a song once shared between Maria and Giygas, and the comforting memories he had suppressed weaken Giygas. The latter surrenders and retreats, promising that he will return! In Earthbound Giygas returns to Earth many years later as the primary antagonist of EarthBound, though he vastly differs from his appearance in Mother. In the time between invasions, Giygas, still trying to defy fate, brainwashes Ness's best friend Pokey Minch in to becoming his right hand man so that he would be victorious. Giygas gains such tremendous evil power that it destroys his entire being, including his mind, causing him to become undefinable by human standards. As such, Giygas manifests as what can only be described as pure evil; in Pokey Minch's words, "he is the Evil Power." Due to the loss of his mind, Giygas becomes irrational and incapable of thought. To rectify this, Pokey seals him in the Devil's machine so that his power would be contained and his mind kept intact. In the final battle, Pokey attests that Giygas isn't aware of himself or what he is doing, referring to him as "an all-mighty idiot." This is highly reminiscent of the Lovecraftian god Azathoth, who is referred to as the "Blind Idiot God." Now wielding a vast cosmic power which he is unable to control, Giygas becomes a threat to the existence of the universe itself. Ten years after the beginning of EarthBound, Giygas initiates the apocalypse. The only known being who manages to escape destruction is an alien insectoid named Buzz Buzz, who travels back in time ten years and warns Ness of the impending catastrophe. Ness is given the Sound stone and instructed to record the Eight Melodies in order to gain the power of Earth and be strong enough to face Giygas. In Ness' present-day, Giygas' influence is seen throughout Earth, mainly in the form of enemies that Ness encounters. Now existing as the whole of evil power in the universe, Giygas is able to manipulate the evil in the minds of living beings, both human and animal, and he can apparently manipulate even the forms of inanimate objects. In the final battle, Giygas is held within the Devil's Machine, a machine created to contain Giygas' tremendous power. During the battle Pokey shuts the machine off, causing all of Giygas' power to be unleashed; an event that surrounds the four children in a chaotic, bizarre dimension of darkness. His attacks are random and incomprehensible, and his speech is erratic and mindless. Although Giygas was too powerful for Ness and his friends to overcome by fighting, he is eventually defeated after Paula calls out to the people of Earth to pray (including the player), and the combined prayers reach Giygas and exploit his weakness, which turns out to be human emotions (possibly due to his loss of Maria). He fades into nothingness, and his apocalyptic future is erased. In Mother 3 There is major speculation within the Mother community that Giygas was originally intended to return in Mother 3 as an unused boss character after the battle with the Masked Man, Giygas would rise up and there would be a battle against him. This was dropped from the game because of Giygas' supposed death in Earthbound ''and Nintendo thought it would have been unprofesional to have a character who died in a previous game, return. Interpretations Shigesato Itoi has stated that his inspiration for Giygas' speech in ''EarthBound came from a traumatic childhood experience where he accidentally walked into an adult movie theater and caught a glimpse of a rape scene in the 1957 film "The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty" (憲兵とバラバラ死美人 "Kenpei to Barabara Shibijin"). In actuality, there was no rape scene in this film, instead a murder scene. As Itoi was a child at the time, he has stated his lasting memory of this experience is fuzzy at best. Trivia * Brainshock is effective against Giygas, although only during a few of his various different stages. * Giygas is one of the three characters who can use PSI Rockin, along with Ness and Ness's Nightmare. * Giygas' first form is a giant eyeball-like window in the Devil's Machine with Ness' face in the center. His second and third forms are undulating red swirls that resemble a screaming face if looked at the right way. In his final form, it is still an undulating red swirl (with the "screaming face" still visible.) His form with the Ness face may be Ninten's as he wanted a companionship with him. * It could be possible that Giygas' race had the ability to mix and match different PSI attacks to form 'patchwork' PSI. As these special PSI are made up of different PSI, it is impossible to see what the PSI was supposed to be like. One example is when Giygas used a multiple PSI Freeze attack on Ness' party, even though PSI Freeze is meant to target only one target. * In Mother 1+2, it is actually possible to defeat Giygas outside of the scripting by poisoning him. Doing so earns no exp and the ending proceeds normally. * Giygas is also considered by many gamers the most disturbing boss battle in any video game, as his final form resembles a fetus. It is also noted that the overworld before the battle looks like the cervix and the womb. * Some suggest that Giygas's essence has inhabited Lucas's brother Claus at the climax of Mother 3. Another suggestion is that Pokey took part of Giygas's being into the future and made him inhabit Claus's body and act as Pokey's puppet (Due to lack of intelligence and weakening his powers due to him controlling Claus's body). * It is possible that he was royalty or had a military influence in his people's race. * Giygas' form in Mother looks very similar to Mewtwo from the Pokémon series. It is possible that Mewtwo is based on his design. This theory is backed up by the fact that many of the people who worked on Mother also worked on Pokémon. * It is said that the cave of the past is Mt. Itoi. * The music in Giygas' Lair is called "The Place". * After Giygas is defeated in Earthbound, the screen seems to go funny and looks as if the game switches itself off. But after awhile, the game returns to normal play, proving the game was actually working properly. Category:Giygas Category:Mother Bosses Category:EarthBound Bosses